"Motivation is what gets you started. Habit is what keeps you going. -Jim Rohn"

Monday, October 17, 2011

Pumpkin

October 17, 2011

Typically pumpkin is a pretty subdued thing... we carve them at Halloween, we display them for Thanksgiving, we make pies and lots of people love the scent of pumpkin candles, heck, I even posted a recipe for Paleo Pumpkin Pecan Pancakes. Well, what happens when you get 7 pumpkin loving Crossfitters together with pumpkin beer and pumpkin martinis... ohhh, you know, you sign up a team for GARAGE GAMES!!

Hubs and I will be competing with T and KP this weekend! We are all really excited and cant wait to represent CrossFit Wachusett! Together the 4 of us will make a great team. We will be competing in the scaled division. Its going to be great! So this week... its all about the prep!

Todays WOD was great for endurance and cardio. I felt a little sluggish during the warmup. My legs are tight and my back is still a little touchy from more deadlifts on Saturday. But as I worked through the 9 fundamentals I was getting looser and looser. The last 250m felt good and I was all warmed up. I took a few minutes to roll before jumping into the WOD. That thing is a life saver!

So the WOD. It was basically 17 minutes long with only 9 minutes of work. We started with 1 minute on 1 minute rest AMRAP of wall balls. K put out the 20lb ball as a target for the squat and I was using the 14lb ball. I managed 25 in the first round which was pretty good despite the ball hitting me in the face one time. I took the minute to catch my breath and get back in. K was challenging me to match my last total so I was shooting for 25, I caught the ball awkward a few times and finished the round short of my goal but not by much. After another minute it was the third set. Somehow that minute flew by and before I knew it K said "15 seconds" and I was only able to get somewhere around 21 or so out.

After the next minute of rest it was time for KB swings. This is one of the deceiving ones. You would think 35lbs for one minute wouldnt be that bad, than when you get to 30 seconds and still have more work to do its crazy! These ones I tried to focus on a spot on the wall and just bang out as many as I could. I tried to get into a zone. I only had one break in the middle of the first minute, but when K reminded me that there was only 10 seconds left at that point I had to start back up. The second two sets I lost control sort of in the middle of the set and the kb went over my head (yes I still hung on to it) but I had to reset and start the movement again. I was determined to get all 3 sets with the same number and I was able to do that.

Finally my least successful round, the Toes to Bar... which in my version was Knees to Elbow (or, just get your knees as close to your elbows as possible). I dont know what it is about "hanging" exercises but I almost feel defeated before I start them. I was trying really hard to hang on and get my knees up... my hands were raw and my arms were definitely tired. It was a sad showing on the K2E. K was awesome trying to get me to keep going. Giving up was never an option, I worked through the whole minute on all 3 rounds, I was just disappointed in myself at that point.

When I was done I could feel how sore my forearms were. I tried to fix my ponytail and it was almost like my fingers didnt want to work. Clearly this is one of my "soft" spots. I need to develop my upper body strength much more and get these hanging movements. Pushups have improved and my push press, but I think that has a lot to do with chest and shoulders... I could be totally wrong though. I really want to work on this, and as much as pullups are "the suck" I really need to discipline myself to practice, practice, practice... even if it involves ripping off some of these callouses...

I spent the rest of the hour working on my cleans as my skill. K and I have talked about my form a lot on different lifts. I really like cleaning and definitely want to get better at them so I was all for this lesson. It was nice to use lighter weight and really focus on the explosiveness of the move. I used the 45lb bar for the hanging cleans and progressed to 65lbs for the cleans. I think by the end of it I had improved a lot. I tried to take every instruction K gave and apply it right away on the next lift. I also tried to retain it for the next set. Hopefully the next time I clean I will be even faster and stronger.

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About Me

I am a 30-something year old woman, "Mama" to a toddling little boy, married and holding a Masters of Architecture. I like to work (yep one of those people who actually love my job and enjoy working extra hours). So really, I am blogging about myself, an "average" woman working full time and on a mission to be healthy both physically and mentally.